Matt S. is the Editor-in-Chief and Publisher of DDNet. He's been writing about games for over 20 years, including a book, but is perhaps best-known for being the high priest of the Church of Hatsune Miku.
To start this review with something very personal: My father passed away last week. It’s been difficult, to put it mildly. The reason I bring it up is that Dad absolutely loved Ten-Pin Bowling. Had his own ball, ball bag (I had no idea they made bowling ball bags), shoes, the works. He competed in social leagues all over the…
Having not played the original Code Vein, I have no idea whether Code Vein II is effective in building on it, or whether the two games are related at all. What I do know is that Code Vein II is an excellent soulslike. One that starts quite slowly, but has…
It’s incredible that Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergarde plays so well on…
Lached Up Games serves a very specific niche with its quirky and…
Netflix has done something that no other company had really managed to do before; tap into the Japanese film and television market and get a lot of it localised and easily accessible in western markets. While Japanese films remain as rare as hen’s teeth on any of the other subscription…
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“It’s more of the same!” You just know that this is going to be the main comment (and complaint) about Octopath Traveler II. “It’s too much like the first.” Except it’s not. Of course it’s not. Octopath Traveler was a narrative-driven game that focused on the stories of eight distinct…
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Like a Dragon: Ishin is a spinoff of the Yakuza series, but it is also so much more than that, as we explore in this video. Yakuza films and samurai films have a long history in Japanese cinema, and they’re actually more closely related than many might think (thematically, at…
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There are three things I look forward to in a Yakuza game: Exceptional writing and storytelling, a vibrant and interesting open world (rare, given how dull and bloated most open worlds are), and an authentic setting that makes me homesick for Japan. Like A Dragon: Ishin! might not have “Yakuza”…
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With the release of Theatrhythm this week, I’ve found myself going through all my Final Fantasy CDs and setting up playlists on my iPhone. One of the reasons I love this series as much as I do is because of the music, so, while it’s fresh in my mind, I…
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The High&Low film series (available via Netflix in the west) is many things. First and foremost, the film series offers some of the most wildly entertaining action to come out of Japan’s cinema industry in recent years. The action in these films is big. So big that you’d be forgiven…
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I often wonder how successful I’d be working as an air traffic controller. It seems like it would be a stressful job, given how quickly air flights can turn deadly, and how busy airports are these days. I also suspect I’d be less-than-good at the job, given how many nightmare…
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While we don’t generally cover geographically-limited news here at DDNet (given that we have an international readership, and stuff happening in Sydney doesn’t mean much to our friends in New York), a press release dropped in my inbox this week for something I couldn’t overlook, because it’s just so neat:…
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Square Enix is a company that has many decades of history, and over that time has built a business filled with competitive advantages. It is a company rich with products, services and IP that are unique to it and continue to underpin its value. Perhaps its greatest single advantage of…
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A new trailer for Lies of P has landed, highlighting bits of gameplay and the narrative. Inspired by Pinocchio and set during the “Belle Epoque Era” (late 19th century through to WW1 in the 20th century), this is one of the most impressive-looking soulslikes from a developer outside of FromSoftware.…
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